WORLD - Tunis Financial Harbour signs strategic agreement with Turkish DEMTAS Group

www.bi-me.com - TUNISIA. Tunis Financial Harbour (TFH), the flag ship project of the Bahraini based Islamic investment bank Gulf Finance House (GFH), announced today that it has signed a strategic partnership agreement with DEMTAS Group, a leading Turkish developer, to commence the infrastructure and construction work on the project upon receiving the final approvals from the Tunisian government.

The development’s masterplan has already been approved by the Tunisian Government, and final go ahead on the infrastructure design, which were submitted at an earlier stage, is now pending.(source)

BANKING - Stronger international ties could help Turkey's nascent Islamic banks sustain recent growth

BI-ME.COM - INTERNATIONAL. Turkey's Islamic banks could continue their recent strong growth if they can cultivate stronger ties with their international owners and create a sustainable brand image, in Standard & Poor's Ratings Services' view.

The country's Islamic banking sector has grown strongly over the past five years, with total sector assets accounting for about 5% of total system assets as of year-end 2010 compared with 2.8% five years earlier. (source)

INDEXES - OPINION - Dow Jones Islamic Markets commentary: Lessons from the turmoil (DJIM Turkey)

INTERNATIONAL. It is of no surprise that the Dow Jones Islamic Market Index (DJIM) covering Arab stock markets suffered the largest losses in February. Political crisis and civil unrest in Egypt, Jordan, Bahrain, Yemen, Morocco, escalating even to a civil war like in Libya, weighed on the markets.

The turmoil led the DJIM Kuwait Index to drop 8.64% to close at 908.36 (as of February 22’s close of trading). (source)